Minecraft Origins: The Decimation of a Paradise
by thesandwich
Summary: An Oral History of the Plague- "With every golden age, comes a period of time when darkness shrouds every corner of the living world" -Idea adapted from the movie, "World War Z"


Minecraft Origins – An Oral History of the Decimation

_The Overworld ; a world once inhabited by the Humans and Villagers._

_ But the plague came in the Golden Age. Fast, swift and agile, the virus spread across the Overworld, manifesting in every way possible. The entire population of Humans was decimated and converted into creatures with rotten flesh and unexplainable hostility. The Villagers were mostly killed off by the "Humans", as they weren't affected by the virus, but they lacked the basics to defend themselves._

_Few population centers of Villagers remain in the Overworld. The Animals have run free, and the world is allowed to grow on its own. Much of the previous Age's cities of Humans and Villagers have vanished from the surface, but still, a few do remain infested heavily with Zombies, Critters and Quislings. Critters emerged from deep underground after Human miners who were stung before by cave spider were infected. The Critters multiplied fast, and soon they emerged from the caves. Quislings are Zombies present in skeletal form. They are the ones who have been infected by the plague for centuries dating from the time the Decimation started. It is still not known how exactly Quislings developed the ability to use a bow, but it is known that they are the most dangerous and the most intellectual type of monsters._

_Shortly after the Decimation, Steve arrived on the Overworld after barely escaping with his life from the Aether, by falling off the edge of it and landing in an Overworld-spawned lake. He no longer has any means of returning to his native land, as portals linking to the Aether require a Mod, which must be crafted by Notch himself. However, Steve believes that there is already a portal linking to Aether in the Overworld. He believes that at least somebody knows where this portal is**. ** It wasn't long before Steve found out that none of his kind lived in the Overworld anymore, as his breed of Humans has been decimated. He ran to the first village situated on a grassland shortly after he landed, chased by Zombies and Critters and shot at by Quislings. The Iron Golems in the village managed to save his life by destroying the small horde of Zombies and Critters behind him. He wrote a diary full of his experiences, mostly comprised of the interviews he had with the Villagers. _

_North Lean_

_[I interview a Common Villager in the village of North Lean, my first place of refuge from those monsters out there. The village of North Lean is secure with fences and Iron and Snow Golems. The Villagers are also armed with a basic shovel or axe in case of an unexpected attack. The Villager gladly welcomes me into his simply-furnished house makes me feel at home by offering me a bowl of mushroom stew. He insists that I am immune to the Plague, since I remained a Human, and did not transform into a zombie.]_

We called it the Horror. The scientists called it the Plague. Everybody calls it the Decimation now, no doubt about that. Honestly, the only reason we're alive is because of the Golems in our yards which seemingly love us to bits. I've heard that the Golems were built by Humans in the Iron Age for war, and thank god they remained till now. We have regular occurrences of one or two Zombies trying to sneak in. But the Snows take care of that. Snowballs don't do much damage, but they help notify the Irons that there's an intrusion. Heck, building the fortresses for the Snows was worth it, many still feel that it's a waste of space. I lived in the city of Arden, far south of here. The metropolis housed millions of people. Now it's a hellhole. That's the main breeding centre for Zs and Crit.

_How did you actually manage to make it here during the Plague?_ _I mean, I didn't stay here then, but I don't see any signs of transport networks linking here to there._

Oh yes, there were millions of rails. Didn't you see the stone columns?

_I thought they were worn out building pillars. _

No. I took the rail here. The rail was supposed to link one metropolis to another. But unfortunately, well, it didn't. The other metropolis blew up the rails linking to it. I saw the first infected Human in my house. It was at night and we were having dinner, just the two of us. His eyes lost their color, it had turned from white in the middle of the pupil to completely black. He still hadn't become a Z, so I assumed he was just sick. He complained of a headache, but I brushed it off as a mere after-effect of testing TNTs in the deserts. The Humans were developed for war, I'm sure of that. They made things like the TNTs, swords and arrows. That Human in my house was my neighbor. He was a big-time TNT specialist, always going out into the field and blowing up the ground. Then, he began to act strangely. His speech was slurred, and his skin was, sort of, decaying rapidly into a green matter. He started to shake as if he was possessed. A stench developed around him too, and even before I came out of my daze, he lunged at me like a wild animal, snapping about and trying to grab my face. I pushed him off with all the force I could muster, and made for the door while he lumbered after me. Oh yeah, you should know that Zs can't run, only Critters can crawl fast, but still not as fast as when a normal person sprints. I literally flew out of the door and slammed it shut behind me, while he began moaning and banging the door. Something's wrong; that was my only thought then. I froze when I saw the horrors on the street. Those Zs were everywhere, lumbering, trudging and some were tearing my fellow Villagers to pieces. Here's the funny part, they weren't eating the Villagers like us, they were just killing indiscriminately. They derived pleasure from killing. My neighbor Villager grabbed me and shook me out of a second daze. The only words he said were, 'Rail! Get to the rail!' I ran with him straight through an entire Z horde surrounding the streets. The Zs were pouring out of the bank, apartments, and every other building. Terrified screams and shouts became a normality. Fire raged everywhere, setting both Villagers and Zs ablaze. We reached the rail in minutes. Now, the rail isn't exactly a popular mode of transport among Villagers as we prefer to walk with the environment. That's bullshit now. The rail was overcrowded with Villagers trying to get on mine-carts. It was a mess, and suddenly, a scream evaporated all the frustration and rush. Zs poured out of the rail control room and began their mass-killing. My neighbor pulled me away and shoved me into a mine-cart. He got into the next one and almost automatically, we zoomed off on the rail. Many Villagers were on mine-carts travelling ahead of me and out of the city. The city walls were already overrun from 'inside', and Zs were pouring out of the city. We saw Villagers down below trying to make it into the dense forests, only to end up in a dead end. The rail was the best way out, I guarantee.

_I'm guessing the whole city was lost within a few hours?_

Yeah, most probably. When we made it to a particular point in the rail, all of the mine-carts started plunging down into a small little lake. Before I could react, I found myself dropping down into the water below. We surfaced only to see that a section of the rail had been neatly blown off, thereby cutting off access to the next city. That city probably tried to contain the Plague by cutting off its access routes. What they didn't know, was that they were effectively containing a fire with a wooden barrel. We had no other choice but to venture out into the grassy plains and try to build up. Of course, many things attacked us like Critters which came out of the caves. Many of us perished, the lucky ones were the ones with weaponry. And this is where we eventually found 'refuge', only after roughly nine Iron Golems met us along the way. They ventured out from a cave. That's possible, because Humans used them to kill the cave spiders and make way for the huge mining process underway. Snow Golems also made their way to our village shortly after. We're guessing they came from the snow? Most probably. We're protected now at least.

_You all must have been extremely lucky to receive such aid. _

Ah, yes. The Priest still believes that He sent them.

_He?_

Notch, the creator of the Overworld, the creator of Humans and Villagers….

_Really?_

No. That's bullshit. God created us. God created Notch so he could create this world. I believe that God sent the Plague as a mere test.

_Test?_

_[He ignores my question.]_

_Do many wandering Villagers find their way to your village?_

Nope. We haven't seen one in months. You see, we have this stash of fireworks that we consider our 'diamonds'. Every night we fire one up and see it explode into brilliant sparks and flame in the sky. We were at least hoping that someone would see it and head for our village for refuge. Unfortunately, even if they did, they probably didn't make it far from where they were. At least, we're guessing that there's no other village within a large mile radius from where we are.

_[There's a knock on the door.]_

Hey, I'm busy! I'll see you in a bit!

_[The voice replies from the door. "This is urgent! We've got a Villager! He wandered into our village premises!"]_

Oh. Holy shit. A Villager?

_[He turns to me, wearing an expression of excitement and frenzy.]_

Sorry, I'll have to end it here. I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

_[He shakes my hand hastily and makes his way out of the house.]_

_The Eskimo's Grove_

_[After a full day of following ominous stone pillars south of New Lean, I arrive at an enormous network of tree houses reaching from one snow tree to another. Night is falling and the temperature is dropping and I have no choice but to ask for refuge in the Grove. They warmly welcome me and call me a Human, although I do not originate of the Overworld. I find the chance to interview an Eskimo and try to find out as much as I can. He does not pursue the matter that I am of Human breed. ] _

Yes, the Plague killed our morale. That's one thing no other Villager could tell you. As many Villagers as the Zs killed, it also destroyed our morale which was the only thing keeping us alive at that time. I remember running from the city walls with Zs hot on my heels. I never gave up, though, many around me did. They just stopped dead in their tracks, and knelt on the ground, while the Zs caught up and tore them up. I couldn't bear to look, but neither did I have the time to spare a glance. Many others ran with me, some occasionally lobbing some arrows into the horde chasing us. I looked up at the Villagers on the rail and thought, man, they're so damn lucky. My brother ran with me, side by side. He kept repeating the words, don't worry, everything's going to be just fine. We ran past farmhouses where Zs literally poured out of those large farmhouse storage barns. The animals ran rampant. For some reason, Zs don't attack any other bloody creature except us. It's almost as if they have a craving for Villager blood. I began to notice that the air around us grew colder, and soon enough, we were treading snow and ice. The Zs behind us started to get lesser after the cold built in, and when they completely vanished, we burrowed a large hole into a dirt cliff. There were few of us, and few torches as well to keep the place lighted and warm. We sealed off the entrance to the little burrow with cobblestone. There was meat and sugar to go around. By the next morning, there were no more Zs and we began to build in the snow trees. The good thing about these trees is that Critters can't climb snow trees due to the ice layer that forms on the trunk, and it's a good distance above the ground to avoid notice from the Zs. That was also when we realized that Zs burn up in the day and completely disappear, while Critters retreat back into their caves when the sun rises.

_How long did it take for you all to build the tree-houses?_

Ah, roughly around a week. We had our supply of food after many wandering animals found their way to us, as we were a light source. Golems also visited us and stayed with us even. I'm not sure why they came and where they came from, but they protected us at night from those Zs and Critts.

_How do you cultivate crops if you're always in the trees?_

That's why we developed aero-farming. Here let me show you.

_[He leads me to a section where the trees appear closer together. Wooden planks are extended from one tree to another here in continuous rows. In between these rows are columns of water which are contained between rows of plowed farm soil. And on the soil, are the fresh, growing wheat, potatoes and carrots.]_

This is the marvelous creation by a few scientists who went into refuge with us during the Plague. They were formally from the Shutter Laboratories branch in the city.

_Shutter Labs? _

_[I pause for a while. The Aether had such labs present commonly in the mountainous regions, except, they were named the Visor Gradient Stations.]_

Yes. Is there a problem?

_No, sorry. Please carry on._

They spent about four days constructing this farm-thing. All their effort was worth it though, we can self-sustain, and that's vital to survive an outbreak. _[He chuckles.] _

_Do you have similar structures to contain animals?_

Yeah, of course, we do have some cows and sheep that we hold in an aero-pen. The sheep are extremely important to our grove here, so we even deployed Golems to protect them in their pen. Kinda stupid if you'd ask me, we fenced up the pen and placed it under full lighting conditions, and plus there's a zero possibility that a Z or Crit makes it up our trees. These are Snow Trees, and as far as I know, they don't stop growing.

_[The sun sets, casting a massive orange glow across the horizon. It almost seems peaceful just to look at it.]_

Beautiful, isn't it. We used to gather on the roof of our houses back in Arden to just observe the sun set.

_[He yawns.]_

So, where're you headed?

_Arden._

Man, you're crazy. Haven't you heard enough of that place? It's the reason why some Zs find their way here. That place breeds Zs and Crits!

_It's possible that someone there knows a way to get to…._

_[I pause again.]_

To get to the next city? Whoa, you're mad.

_No. [I decide not to tell him. He wouldn't know anyway.] Can I stay for the night?_

Please! Do! You're not thinking of travelling at night, are you?

_No. [I laugh, and he laughs too.]_

_[As he walks me to a separate hut, he says to me….]_

Someday someone is going to find a way out of this mess. Someone is going to find a cure. Somebody is going to lead us out of this hell we're living in.

_[He smiles sadly and returns to his house after settling me in the hut.]_


End file.
